BY ALMAZ STOUT Author of "Copper Under the Gold," etc., etc. Published by Arrangement with Cassell's Colonial Press, Melbourne. All Rights Reserved. CHAPTER XIV. (Continued). Presently Sadie raised her eyes, ami Sydney -was shocked at the hag gard misery in them. "1 expect you think I'm mad? ' she said at last. "Sometimes I think I am. But I'm quite sane now. I have come to ask you to help me, for you are the only soul in the world who CUll." . "Of course, I gladly will if I can. "You can, if you will. I want yon to give back my husband to me. Svdnev turned white, and her hands clenched each other in her lap. "I don't understand you." she an swered,- coldly. "Your husband is nothing to me." ••Are you sure?" ankeu Sadie, rais ing uncanny eyes to her face. "Well, any wav, you are something—1 begin to 'think you are everything—to him." "Really, Mrs. Kenyan," uaiil Syd ney, rising to her feet, lier indigna tion getting the better of her, "I oar not sit and listen io you if you talk like...

LO! THE BRUTAL SAVAGE! The Indian was utterly savage, With a wild and demoniac glare And a blood-curdling yell on his foe meu lio fell, And hurriedly scalped off their hair. He wasn't a civilised warrior, His murderous deeds were mere crime, Though the butchering brute under stood how to shoot, He could kill but one man at a time. The Fiji was wholly ferocious Whenever a stranger drow near; With a sinister snort he would cut his life short By means of a sixteen-foot spear. With the bones of his unhappy vic tims He whitened the neighboring scenery, He was lacking in culture, this dusky hued vulture— He couldn't kill men by machinery. Barbarians all were these scoundrels, They lived in a base, brutal day; A pitiful sight was to see the wight fight In his frightfully untutored way. Of reason and modern ideas The creature was wholly bereft; Yet a man must admit it would help out a bit If we had a few more of him left.

n Wolfe's Schnapps the World's Nightcap. Buy Whole Bottle_s« A LONG-SERViCh TRAMWAY OFFICER MR. CHARLES ROCK 42 Gladen Street, East Brunswick, for 33 years in the Melbourne Tramway Company, writes this letter (2/4/12). which » of special interest to all Rail way and Tramway me*, to 1 CLEMENTS TONIC LTD. "In December, 1911,1 caught cold and serions pleurisy. For three days my temperature was 104 degrees. My life was des paired of, but through taking the doctor's advice I live to-day, he advised my wife to get Clements Tonic, as 'THERE WAS LIFE IN THAT MEDICINE.' They were the truest words he ever uttered, and I would have been dead only for that grand medi cine. My wife paid 2/3 for the small bottles, had 6he paid £40 she would have had good value. I have seen a lot of letters about CLEMENTS TONIC in books and papers, but whalj'x find fault with is that every writer has utterly failed to give the proper, value of that medicine. ; * f ^iivRLES ROCK." A Cairns resident writes: M A line...

IS LOVE A DISEASE? Dr. Maurice de Fleury, the famous "brainstorm" specialist, lias a cure for love, which he classes as one ol the worst vices known to mankind. According to Dr. de Fleury, gradu ated isolation and a wonderful serum which he has discovered will effect a complete cure. He describes love as a sort of mental poisoning, com parable to physical intoxication, and puts it in the fifth category of "en slaving poisons." Alcohol, Dr. de Fleury says, is the worst. Next comes opium and hasheesh. In the third category are morphine, cocaine, and ether. Tobacco comes fourth and love is fifth. Dr. de Fleury declares that by means of delicate electrical instru ments which "record every infinites!- j mal movement of the nervous sys- 1 tem," he has obtained charts of the conditions of sufferers from this "pas sional intoxication" and found how to treat it. In the course of his experiments the doctor traced the curve of love fever as clearly as that of typhoid may be traced and charted ...

THE SPIRIT OF CROMWELL. By Rev. T. B. Gregory. Two hundred and fifty-three years ago the "Merry Monarch," Charles the Second, and his associates dug up the body of Oliver Cromwell, along with those of Ireton, Bradshav, the old Protector's wife and daughters. They were celebrating the anniver sary .of the execution of the first Charles, and nothing would do but they must iuclude, as a part of then programme, indignities to the ashet of those who had spoiled their game of kingcraft and inaugurated the lib erty which is to-day the glory of th&amp;lt; British Empire. The bodies of Cromwell, Ire ton and Bradsliaw were torn out of the:i graves in Westminster Abbey, drag ged to Tyburn, hanged there on a gibbet all day long, and then behead ed. Cromwell's head was set up on a pole, and those who would not have dared to look the grand old Protector in the face while he was alive looked at the head, jested, cursed, and had a great time generally. After gtutting themselves with abuse and r...

HELP THE STARVING BELGIANS. TO THE EDITOR. SIR,—May I, through the medium of your paper, appeal to the ever generous public for help for the thousands .of starving and homeless men, women and child ren of Belgium. The citizens of Footscray are endeaving to send £1000 to these poor people, and for tbis purpose we have five art unions, two at 6d and three at Id. If all the citizens of this town would take one ticket, think what it would mean to the little children. Surely the mother's heart will respond to my appeal and at a time ■like Christmas I feel sure no one wiif miss one penny for these persecuted people. Particulars of art unions are ad vertised elsewhere, and tickets may be obtained at this office by courtesy of the editor, or direct from me. AM-the school children iu Footscray are helping by selling tickets, and if parents who would be willing for their parents to help in a similar manner would communicate with me at once, I •Will send tickets immediately. The atrocities we ...

CORRESPONDENCE. ROYAL ALFRED AGED MER CHANT SEAMEN'S INSTI TUTION. TO THE EDITOR. SIR,—At the present critical moment when our national supremacy is more than ever de pendent upon our armed forces on land and sea, there is one im portant" unit of our great and glorious Empire who by the very unobtrusiveness of his services is liable to be overlooked, viz., the merchant sailor. To him we turn in peace and war for the very necessaries of life. By facing un flinchingly the perils that beset him day by day he has made our vast seaborne commerce the greatest in the world. For the transport to the Mother Country of the splendid Colonial offerings of men and stores in the hour of our national need we are in debted to Merchant Jack. Yet there are hundreds of these worthy seamen in bitter distress— old, blind, and crippled, who cannot obtain employment, and whose case is hopeless in the ex treme. Shall these be left to tight unaided their uneven fight with penury and misfortune ? For nearly ...

Sports at Tarwin Lower. Ofkice-deabErs : President, J. Lees. Esq. Vice.preBident, Mrs A. M. Black. Treasurer, \V. Jox, Esq, Handicappers, Messrs H. Thomas, W. Caehin, junr., W. Jes. Starters, MeBars J. Dewar and lv. Atkin, Judges, Messrs V. A. L. Adams and A. M. Black. The weather by no means favored the promoters of the sports held at Tarvvin Lower on Boxing Day in aid of the funds of the local branch of the Bush Nursing Association. Rain fell most of the afternoon, and ham pered the committee in carrying out the excellent programme that had been drawn up, but the mem bers stucl: to their work manfully, and succeeded in getting off most of the events. There was a good attendance of the public, a large number coming a long distance, but had the weather been more propitious the crowd would have been doubled. Two motor launches ran from Inverloch, and brought a number who were spending their holidays at this seaside resort. Tarwin Lower possesses unequalled advantages I for the carryi...

INVERLOCH. What is puzzling the residents j of the town is the delay of the Mines Department in not issuing private mining leases. The Minister for Mines paid a visit to Inverloch and met those in terested, and made certain pro mises, but nothing further has been heard upon the matter. There are several enthusiasts prepared to try their luck in opening up coal fields, and have bean put to the expense of peg ging out leases and advertising applications year after year with out any notice bei>" . ' a"11 taken °* their request-/' A syndicate was formed five years back and money paid into a fund for the purpose of prospecting for coal, but as the Mines Department has blocked all private enterprise by refusing to grant leases the capital is lying idle. It is time this "dog in the manger " system in vogue with the Department was ban ished for something more pro gressive. Inverloch has waited a long time for something to give it a spur, and the desired consum mation would be realised wh...

Gunyah Gunyah. Tun annual ladies nomination rifle match was carried out as usual on No. 1 range on Boxing Day. The we?.lher conditions wore very bad for shooting, a drizzling rain falling most of the time, which at times de veloped into a vory thick mist, al most. obscuring the target. At times it was almost impossible to road, the markings on the target;;. This accounted for the vory poor shooting, and made it everything but encouraging for the r.cw members, which at the present, form the major portion cf the club. Five no.'.' members were sworn in during t.hc match. The conditions were eight shots at 500 yards. Although the weather condition!! were so very un pleasant the attendance of ladies and visitors was a record one, the. club room was taxed to its utmost to pro vide standing room during the time of presentation of prizes by the cap tain. Two meals were provided by the ladies, and in spite cf all the dif ficulties the match was over in good time so that all wore able to "get...

A Calamity. Ho had boon spending Christmas live with his brother, and when, late that same night, he returned to his wife—Mrs. Brown—las face was strangely pale and haggard. "What is it, dear?" exclaimed the wife. "I will tell you. It happoned while we •were at dinner. We were all eat ing In quite ordinary fashion when ■ suddenly little Dorothy uttered a cry j of distress and closed her eyes. Al most at the same Instant my sister 1 in-law pressed her hand to her fore head, and tears streamed down her I face. As I gazed at her in alarm, my brother John throw up his arms with an exclamation of intense pain, and then buried his face, over which a sharp spasm appeared to be passing, in' his naplciu." "Poisoned!" gasped Mrs. Brown, with hysterical symptoms. "No, my dear," replied Mr. Brown, with ghastly calmness. "Horse-rad ish."

Christmas Roses. By RUBY M. AYRES. (Copyright.) When I first met Burnbam, he and his wife were trying to keep up ap pearances on three hundred a year. I had once been, engaged to Burn ham's wife myself when we were both young and romantic, and believed in bread and cheese and kisses; but, later—when she began to go about and enjoy herself, she pulled a long face whenever I talked about getting married, and finally one morning there was a small parcel and a letter on my breakfast table. She took three pages to say pret tily what she might have said in three lines: "I don't love you enough to he poor; 1 want money, and all the tbingt money can buy." She made no mention of Burnbam, but I knew—as plainly as if she bad told me, that it was he who had cut me out. Burnbam was the nephew of a bach elor lord, and his heir presumptive. I never answered her letter; I threw it' in the fire, sold the ring to a chap in the office who was thinking of risk ing his happiness as I had, and clear ed o...

HABIT A3 A PARTNER. Chats With the Ambitious—And Others. By Oriaon Swett Marden. When we have once made the power of habit our partner, it there after does a large part of our -work for us. It carries ua every day to our place of work without our even think ing especially of it. And it not only brings us to our task, but whet %ve begin the day's routine actually per forms a large part of it without our special thought. How little we realise what we ewe to this power of habit, which thus takes such a burden from us and ful fils without request or command so many of the demands made upon us. When you start in a certain career you are like a seamstress setting' a stitch on the sewing machine, or a machinist fixing the gauge for this setting. The machine does the rest. In the same way habit sets the stitches, or fixes the gauge, and after that the man does the right or wrong thing almost automatically. For this reason it is well to call a halt occasionally, as it were, take stock, to se...

Well Named. Jones was at the Christmas concert, and behind him sat a lady with a child on her lap, which was crying un ceasingly. Unable to stand it any longer, .Tones turned smilingly to the lady and asked: "Has that infant of yours been christened yet, madam?" "No. sir," replied the lady. "If I were you I would call it 'Good Idea,'" said^Jones. "And "why 'Good Idea'?" said the lady, indignantly. "Because," said Jones, "it should bo carried out." It was Jones who had to be car ried out. "What is natural history?" asked the teacher of a small pupil. "I guess." said the small pupil, "that it's the kind where people are always fighting and killing each oth er," was the unexpected reply.

SNAPSURE'S PARCEL. By R. H. Malcolm. Snapsure called for string and pa per to tie up a box of cigars tliat he was sending as a Christmas present. "hhall I pack it up for " began one of his clerks. "No! I'll pack it myself. I know the fuss you'l' make; and, what's more, I don\ \vant it to look like a bundle of old clothes! The way to get anything done and not have peo ple fussing around is to do it your self. Where's that string?" "Here it is " "Heavens! Call that string? When I ask for string I want string! When I want hangman's rope I'll ask for it! Get some thin stuff, can't you? Got any brown paper? Send Parker to me with brown paper, and buck up! Boy! Boy!" "Yessir!" "Clear a place on that table at once! How often have I told you not to leave It Uttered up like a pigsty?" "But you told mo " "Clear that table! Think I'm here to argue with you? Where's that idiot with the brown paper?" "Will this string do, sir?" "Will this paper do, sir?" "How many more of you going to shout at o...

Not Proven. She: I thought you told me this was a civil court. He: So it is. She: Why, those horrid lawyers in it were as-rude as they could be. "I wish you would . marry that steamship captain," aaid small Ruth. "Why, dear?" queried her big sis ter. " 'Cause," replied Ruth, '.'if he should die you can wear seaweeds and be a real mermaid." "Didn't you say," demanded the young man, "that this Bhip was equip ped with all appliances for human safety?" "I did." "Then how does it happen that 1 now find myself engaged to a lady I did not know when the vessel left the pier?" Tom: Do you know what I am go ing to give you for Christmas this year? Kitty (enthusiastically): No; only I'm sure it will be something new and stylish and elegant, and awfully ex pensive. You dear, reckless boy, you! And Tom wishes he hadn't said anything. Vicar: Are you the children who have been singing carols in this neigh borhood recently? Little Girl: Please, yes, sir. Vicar: Then why is it that you scamper throu...